Arizona Hospital on Brink of Collapse After Spending $20 Million on Care for “Migrants”

Migrant patients are overburdening the only hospital in the border town. This is putting strain on medical resources, and the facility is at risk of being shut down without adequate funding. 

Dr. Robert Transchel, Yuma Regional Medical Center’s president and chief executive officer, spoke Sunday to Rachel Campos Duffy about “The Future of Yuma.”Fox & Friends Weekend“This is not a new problem. 

“It’s been a long journey,” He stated. “We’ve been at this for well over a year now. We tracked our uncompensated care for a period of over six months, and we calculated that we’ve provided over $20 million in uncompensated care to the migrants crossing the border.”

BORDER TOWN’S UNIQUE HOSPTIAL ‘RUNNING OUT OF RESOURCES’, ON A BRINK OF COLLAPSE CRING FOR MIGRANTS

Yuma Regional Medical Center is struggling to provide care after migrants flooded in.
(Facebook/Yuma Regional Medical Center)

Transchel stated that neither the federal government, nor the state, are providing funds to cover the costs of the migrant influx.

He said that, despite having taken the matter to Arizona officials and Homeland security Secretary Alejandro MayorkasThis problem still remains unsolved.

“We just don’t have a payer source. Everybody is sympathetic, and everybody lends a listening ear, but nobody has a solution,” He stated. 

“We’ve provided $20 million in care to the migrants that are crossing the border and we just don’t have a payer source for those individuals. It’s not a sustainable model to have these continued rising expenses without a revenue source to offset that,” He added.

ARIZONA BORDER HOSPITAL STUCK WITH $20M BILL FROM TREATING MIGRANTS: ‘IT’S UNSUSTAINABLE

After crossing the border from Mexico, immigrants wait to be processed at the U.S. Border Patrol. The background is the U.S. border barrier. This was August 6, 2022, in Yuma, Arizona. 
(Photo by QianWeizhong/VCG via Getty Images.)

Transchel indicated that the hospital would continue to operate, noting that many hospitals are open on a 24/7 basis. “very thin margin.” 

“We’re fine today, and we’ll be fine tomorrow. The problem is, if this continues, it’s gonna build up, and it’s gonna continue to be a problem.”

He said that the $20 million cost of care does not cover the entire scope of losses suffered by the facility since the arrival of migrant patients. He also pointed out the flight costs and the increased expenses for staffing.

“The infrastructure that we’ve had to add is uncompensated as well,” He also told Campos Duffy that the only people who have received care at no cost were migrants. 

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Transchel stated in an interview with Fox News that the hospital’s maternity unit reached capacity after the nearest hospital approximately 60 miles away stopped providing labor and birth care. migrant patients are pregnant.

“We would have to delay some of the planned inductions for our residents because of that,” He stated.

Megan Myers from Fox News contributed to this report.

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